


Spirit of the Normandy

by Mysti_Fogg



Series: Madelaine Shepard [6]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alien Mythology/Religion, Canon Compliant, Gen, Normandy-SR2, Paragon Commander Shepard, Spacer (Mass Effect), Turian Spirits, Vanguard (Mass Effect), War Hero (Mass Effect), calibrations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 11:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12189126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysti_Fogg/pseuds/Mysti_Fogg
Summary: Calibrations explained post-Rannoch.





	Spirit of the Normandy

"Peace between the Geth and quarians... not how I imagined that would turn out. Next you'll be telling me the krogan and turians are cooperating. Oh, right, you managed that one, too. You're a peacemaker, Shepard. A rare thing these days. Now if you can pacify the Reapers, we'll make you a saint." Garrus stands at his station. Calibrating. Again. "So, who needs their ass kicked now?"

"That's the question you have for me after I go toe to toe with a Reaper?" Shepard is a bit put off by his nonchalance.

"Is there another question I should have?" He sounds a little worried.

"You just seem ... not terribly concerned about it. You didn't seem happy about me fighting the Reaper earlier."

"I wasn't, Shepard. I thought it had a good chance of killing you." His fingers move deftly over the control panel as he looks at her. "But you were right that we need the geth and the quarians, and we weren't going to get their help until the Reaper was dead."

"So . . . you aren't upset?"

"Very. I hate it when you take on missions completely alone." He's watching the systems checks. "I think this is the first one that's actually turned out well. Usually you end up dead, arrested, or bleeding out of every orifice and near dead." There's a growl of frustration to Garrus's voice. "However, I can't control you or keep you from taking risks when the fate of the galaxy is at stake. So I focus on the things I can control, like the spirits, and then I pray really hard." 

She blinks, startled. "Wait. You can control the spirits?"

"Well, some of them. You do wonders for my religious leanings." He pauses to look at her. "Do you.... You don't really know anything about turian religion. Huh."

"It never came up in all those elevator conversations, and... you've never talked about it or gone to services or anything ..." 

He snorts. "Well, I don't need to go anywhere. I can just come down here and calibrate the guns."

Shepard squints her eyes at him in a slightly disbelieving stare. It couldn't be. It really couldn't be. All those _Can it wait for a minute, I'm in the middle of some calibrations_ he was praying? What? "I ... you're joking ... no you're not joking. If this is a joke, I'm going to be annoyed."

"It's not a joke, Shepard."

"Okay. Please explain to the human how calibrating has anything to do with religion."

"It doesn't. Not directly. What do you know about the spirits? You must have picked up something by now." Garrus looks at her inquisitively, and she has a sinking feeling of maybe not being such a great girlfriend when all she has is Alliance Basic to fall back on.

"Turian spirits are representative of groups or areas," she recites. "They're neither good nor evil, and you don't appeal to them for things. They just sort of inspire the living."

He shifts his head a little bit, thinking about her interpretation. "That's mostly right. I think 'inspire' might not be entirely the right word, 'enhance' is also an option, as in 'Spirits give me patience.'"

"Okay. So they're enhancing or inspiring your calibrating?"

"No." He gives her a pointed look. "They're enhancing your ability to shoot straight when you're trying to hit oh, I don't know, the tiny weak point on a two-mile high Reaper."

She's feeling the urge to fidget, which she won't allow herself to do since it's unprofessional. "I'm really not following you, other than that you're praying to make me shoot better."

"No. Well, yes. Later. But first I'm calibrating things so that the spirits will actually be able to make you shoot better."

"Yeah, I'm definitely missing a few steps here, big guy."

He paces behind his console. "Shepard. The Normandy has not been attached to any particular fleet for as long as I've been with you. It was given to you to run as a spectre. So it has its own spirit because the people on board are their own unit."

"Because every military unit develops its own spirit? Okay, I can see how the Normandy might have its own spirit."

"Not every unit, but we'll stay away from the complicated stuff. A spirit is made up from the energy of all the people who have ever been a part of it and the things that they've done. I know Anderson had her first, but he didn't have the ship free from the fleet. You're the first captain, so your energy forms the core of the spirit. And all of the rest of us who were here at the beginning, Chief Williams, Lt. Alenko, XO Pressley, Wrex .... it doesn't matter if they're gone. They're also still part of it and very close to the core that determines what the spirit will be good at, what it can inspire. They left part of their energy here permanently. For those of us still here from the beginning like Joker and Chakwas and Tali and me, we're still leaving large impressions of our own on what kind of spirit it will be."

He looks at her consideringly, "You really think I could survive a rocket to the face on my own? I like to think I'm tough, but that is the stuff of legends, Shepard. You brought me back to the spirit I'm most attached to, and it's filled with Chakwas's desire to heal and care for soldiers like we're her children. The spirit is at least as good at healing as she is. That's just the kind of energy she gives it. And when she goes asking for it to make her a better healer because she doesn't want us to die, it does. Well, she doesn't ask the spirits, she asks her god. But the Spirit of the Normandy hears her prayers, too, because she is a part of it."

"Joker's swagger about being the best pilot in the Alliance may or may not be true," he continues, "but with the Normandy? Always bet on him to win because he's given his heart and soul to the ship, and that feeds the spirit those skills. And that makes Cortez a better pilot, too. And a quarian engineer on a pilgrimage who is now an admiral of the Fleet? Tali brings a lot to the table in terms of both practical skills and spiritual energy. And then there's me," he smirks, "Badass sniper who stayed up for days hitting every target in front of him on Omega, and I have training to make all the big guns fire better. It doesn't matter how good you are, Shepard. Having me around always improves the team. The spirit has my skills in its repertoire of things it can help with."

"So you're calibrating the guns to give some kind of energy to the ship?"

"Not the ship. The spirit. Though it probably is ship shaped. I calibrate the guns, and in a practical sense, the ship is better at hitting its target. But since I am an excellent marksman, calibrating the guns is a good way for me to make sure the spirit has my skills to call on. And when your girlfriend wants to shoot Reapers on foot, it's nice to have someone to pray to that her aim will be true and she'll ... what does the song say, heal like a krogan, run like a leopard? Because Chakwas's and Joker's contributions will make sure you do both of those, too. Anyway, I'd only have myself to blame if you started missing critical shots. Should have calibrated more."

She reaches up to stroke his mandible. "Thank you." Maybe she doesn't believe, but she does still owe him for endless hours of calibrations.

After a moment, she has to ask "So, what kind of energy do you think I give the spirit?"

"Hope." he says without hesitation. "Krogan, turians, quarians, geth, suicide missions with everyone alive ... you work hard to do the impossible. Intuition to fit all the different parts of your group together. Also luck. No one wants to play you at cards, enter a drinking contest against you, or otherwise set their luck against yours."

"Mmmm... you're right. I'm the luckiest woman in the galaxy." She locks the door to the battery with mischief in her eyes. "I have you."

**Author's Note:**

> Garrus misquotes the lyrics to _Commander Shepard_ by Miracle of Sound. The real lyric is "You can fight like a Krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard." In my world the song is an in-universe hit.
> 
> Music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiRDJLcYua0


End file.
